Linkspam, the chunky edition

Stairway to Health, or Let's Judge People for Not Taking the Stairs: "I can’t tell you how many times, aside from the episode mentioned above, I have heard people castigate others for not taking the stairs. I myself was harassed by a janitor as I waited for the elevator at my school (which has a large sign, mostly ignored by the other students, to please reserve its use for disabled students), and I had to calmly explain that it was hard on my injured foot to take the stairs. I shouldn’t have had to."

The Apocalypse is Now Yours, a speech given by sociologist Barbara Ehrenreich at a college graduation: "At the moment you accept your diploma today, you will have an average debt of $20,000 and no health insurance. You may be feeling desperate enough to take whatever comes along. Some of you will get caged in cubicles until you’re ejected by the next wave of layoffs. Others – some of the best and brightest of you in fact—will still be behind a counter in Starbucks or Borders three years down the road."

Thinky thoughts

The Shame Game, a discussion of shame and poverty in the US.

I'm still unemployed. I'm still deeply ashamed, down where I can't even analyze, of the fact that I "couldn't hack" all the minimizing bullying crap my old employer used to throw at me. I'm ashamed of the fact that I can't get unemployment, even, because my reasons for leaving weren't good enough for the state. Never mind that all the people I trust tell me that I did what I had to for my sanity and for my health; I don't trust me. My judgment of the situation. My ability to cope. I quit because I thought I was going to be fired or I would seriously injure myself if I stuck around. I couldn't breathe in that office; her influence was so choking that we were all paranoid.

I'm ashamed of being "insubordinate". I'm ashamed even though my parents, the last folks in the world to dispense empty comfort, told me I have to let it go. I think I'll feel this until the day I die, this small black worm inside my heart. And if I buy that programming, even though I was raised middle-class by two feminist parents and I watched my mom go through cycles of bullying managers for years until one made her collapse in a Georgia parking lot and finally retire, even if I intellectually know better...

Man, this country is fucked in the head.

Linkspam, the 3rd

End of life care is a feminist issue. FUCK YEAH, IT IS. "Filipovic asks another big question arising from that: What happens when insurance won't cover at-home care for terminally ill patients? Answer: Women take it on for little or no money."

This is kind of a hot button issue for me, seeing what MIL went through with Grandmom (affecting her entire family, AND MINE) when her better off brother basically refused to deal with the dying process and/or any care; hell, even my brother-in-law wasn't there for things that I was, because I lived in the house and because I have two X chromosomes. Then there's Mom, and Dad helping her with her care without respite, and the much different support/respect he gets from medical and government parties because he's doing this grinding, draining, gender-coded work.